U.S. Transportation Secretary Slater AnnouncesSeven ITS
Projects for National Evaluation

U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater today announced the
selection of seven Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) projects
in California, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington for
national evaluation.

The selected sites are in the Silicon Valley near San Jose, Calif.;
in Riverside, Calif.; in Seattle and Spokane, Wash.; in New Jersey;
at the Delaware River Port Authority in Pennsylvania; and in Dade County, Fla.

The seven projects are part of the ITS integration program. The program's
objective, which is specified in the Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA-21), is to accelerate the integration and interoperability
of ITS in metropolitan and rural areas.

"President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to responsible
planning for projects that will improve the safety and efficiency of
America's surface transportation networks and improve the quality
of life for all Americans," Slater said. "These projects will
confirm the value of integrating technologies as a means of connecting
communities and show the way for others in metropolitan and rural communities
to deploy integrated ITS infrastructure."

Funding for the seven evaluations is $1.5 million. The sites were
selected from among 67 sites that receive funds from the ITS integration
program. The seven were selected as the most promising for filling information
gaps about the benefits and costs of some of the newer ITS technologies
or for documenting newer, successful ways of doing business.

The evaluations are designed to increase the understanding of the
benefits and impacts of deploying and integrating ITS infrastructure
in metropolitan and rural settings. Independent consultants will perform
all evaluations. Some evaluations will focus on obtaining "before-after"
measurements of impacts, whereas others will focus on interviews that
document lessons learned about ways communities can work together.

The projects to be evaluated consist of:

Silicon Valley, Calif. Project to be evaluated: concept of
operations for a project on the I-880/SR 17 corridor for Santa Clara
County through the Silicon Valley. This corridor extends about 15
miles from Milpitas to Los Gatos. The Smart Corridor improvements
project will support integration and information sharing among and
across the intelligent transportation subsystems.

Riverside, Calif. Project to be evaluated: demonstration
program testing the application of intelligent transportation systems
technologies for providers of public transportation. The project was
developed by the Southern California Association of Governments, in
association with the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the
Riverside Transit Agency and SunLine Transit Agency. The goal of this
demonstration is to test ITS system application on transit operations;
to establish standards and criteria for open environment technology;
to assess transit operational productivity increases from such applications;
to evaluate cost effectiveness; and to identify the means, methods
and actions required to implement and integrate ITS technologies into
traditional fixed route transit, demand response transit and non-traditional
transit services such as smart shuttles.

Spokane. Project to be evaluated: traveler information system
along SR 395 in Spokane, Stevens and Ferry Counties between Spokane
and the Canadian border. This goal of this project is to create a
comprehensive and integrated roadway traveler information system that
will communicate to the public and to road maintenance crews information
concerning current weather conditions, roads surface conditions, border
crossings, flooding, slides and any other items necessary to assist
roadway users in making informed travel decisions.

New Jersey. Project to be evaluated: TRANSMIT. TRANSMIT is
TRANSCOM's system for managing incidents and traffic. TRANSCOM is
a coalition of 15 transportation agencies in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut
region. It provides a cooperative, coordinated approach to regional transportation management.

Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), Pennsylvania. Project
to be evaluated: SmartBridges. Smartbridges is a group of technology
enhancement projects that include traffic signal control for DRPA
bridges, management of traffic flow, incident response and management,
and electronic toll collection as well as safety enhancements and
regional traveler information for several modes of transportation.
DRPA bridges include the Betsy Ross, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman
and Commodore Barry bridges.

Dade County. Project to be evaluated: Sunguide. Sunguide
is a regional (Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties) initiative
using Advanced Traveler Information System to help reduce congestion.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's ITS program was reauthorized
in TEA-21, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998. ITS
combines information and communications technologies to manage surface
transportation networks and improve operational efficiency and safety.